County leaders debate over downtown jail future, federal inmates

County Commissioner Vince Perez announced Sunday morning he would be asking the county to stop housing federal inmates, and said it cost the county millions each year to house them.

Perez said although it costs $90 per inmate per day, the government only reimburses 80 dollars.
Wiles says the 80 dollars is a fair cost.

County commissioner Vince Perez said he wants the county to pull out of the federal contract, saying taxpayers are subsidizing the difference between what it spends to care for federal inmates and what the Feds reimburse. He projects that could be a five million dollar savings.

“These are the types of inefficiencies that lead to property tax increases . These are the types of systemic reforms that have not been undertaken, or have not been comprehensively reevaluated in the past,” Perez said.

“There is no discrepancy, and we are not offsetting the federal cost,” Wiles said.

Sheriff Wiles says the annex is cheaper to run because its modern design lends itself to more efficient staffing. But he says he has reasons why the downtown jail is still being used.

“There are days we bring 200 prisoners or more here to go to court…in addition we house all of our females down here, because the law requires that we keep them separate from our femlae inmates,” Wiles explained.

Perez says a $45 million bond is paying for an expansion at the annex that accounted for space for federal inmates the county is not obligated to house. The law only says it must detain local inmates.

“We have a jail system that is very inefficient, and again, pretty soon, once the expansion is complete, we’ll have 3,000 jail beds but a local population of only 1,500,” Perez said.

“If you dump the feds out we’re gonna be able to reduce the staffing of the officers that watch the federal inmates, but you still have all the other costs in play that will be here and will have to be picked up by local taxpayers,” said Wiles.

ABC-7 did ask for the studies that both Perez and WIles were citing. Perez sent his, which backs up the $90 per person per day cost.

ABC-7 did ask the Sheriff’s office for a copy of the study he cited. We were told the press officers were out of the office and they would get us a copy by tomorrow.

Perez plans to add the motion to stop the federal contract next week.